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Rihanna a spendthrift, former accountant fires back in lawsuit

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Rihanna, pictured here at the Chanel fall 2014 ready-to-wear show in Paris earlier this month, nearly bankrupted herself because of overspending, her former accountant claims.
(Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images)

After Rihanna filed a lawsuit against her accountant for gross mismanagement — she says she lost $9 million in 2009, nearly bankrupting her — her former moneyman has countered with legal papers alleging the singer is a spendthrift to decided to bail on a tour to film the massive dud “Battleship.”

Rihanna filed the suit in 2012 and is seeking $35 million from Peter Gounis and his firm, Berdon LLP. She alleges that the accountants earned significantly more in commissions on one of her tours than she did, failed to properly budget for her tour, and didn’t maximize her “personal net workth and long-term wealth.”

“Was it really necessary to tell her that if you spend money for things you will end up with the things, and not the money?,” claims laywers for Peter Gounis in new legal documents obtained by TMZ.com.

He says Rihanna (who in 2013 was the 17th highest-paid musician in the world, with earnings of $43 million, Forbes reports) dropped millions on designer clothes, shoes and jewelry and extravagant parties, and denies that he advised her to buy a house that she ended up losing $2 million on when she sold it. He wants the case, set to go to trial in May, thrown out.